Top 10 US Healthcare Management Tools that you can look forward to in 2021

In recent times, the healthcare industry is becoming increasingly dependent on accurate and timely data to fulfill government standards. The health industry in the US struggles with processes, such as claims, payment reimbursements, handling and sharing patient data, providing care from anywhere, and delivering quality care. That is why healthcare management is needed to deal with the different tasks involved in patient care. Providing quality care to patients located anywhere has been a challenge in 2020 due to the global pandemic situation. The scenario will continue in 2021 and physicians and healthcare providers are looking for ways to deliver quality care to patients without hampering their safety. 

Let’s have a look at the top ten management strategies and interfaces that served useful to the US health industry in 2020 that you can get hold of for enhancing your clinical service in 2021. 

Claim management refers to the combination of organizing patient data, billing, record keeping, updating data, and processing of medical claims pertaining to patient admission, diagnosis, treatment, and medication. Health insurers aim at maximizing their profits by modifying premiums for policies with a high claim ratio. Claim management tools like payer claims analytics are essential for tracking of bills, payments, and annual deductibles automatically. They allow healthcare sectors to upload large chunks of data, understand trends in patient information, and easily modify visuals. Claims management automates the entire process which results in improved accuracy of billing code and healthcare analytics. The incidents of rejected and denied claims are also reduced to a minimum.

The  covid health crisis, which drastically changed how medical care is provided in the US and worldwide. That is when remote patient monitoring began to receive increasing attention. Remote patient monitoring means delivering healthcare to patients and accessing patient data from anywhere using advanced technology. mHealth and Telehealth applications allow you to monitor patients remotely and access details, such as clinical tasks required to be undertaken and information about patients’ routine management. mHealth means mobile health; it displays patient data in an easy-to-read manner and helps patients to access their data as well as communicate with clinicians. On the other hand, telehealth helps to deliver and facilitate health and health-related services, including medical care, health information services, and self-care. With remote patient monitoring technologies, delivering all care services, including integrated care is possible and patient data can be visualized on a single screen.

Healthcare performance management is a combination of care activities that aim to improve patient care, enhance performance, and deliver high-quality care services. 

It aims at performance of hospital staff to create a high-performance workforce and deliver quality care services. Managed healthcare systems stimulate value-based care, patient-doctor coordination, enhanced data management, and so on. Performance management systems enable you to improve patient outcomes and control the costs for patients with complex conditions. It streamlines workflow and enhances productivity, which increases patient satisfaction.

Payment of medical bills usually involves verifying patient information, such as insurance eligibility, medical coding, bill generation, payment posting, and collection of balance or overdue payments, etc. Payment wallet refers to implementing healthcare payment systems that enable patients to pay for their treatments through direct, copay, or insurance coverage. Such payment solutions promote a smooth, quick, and efficient workflow in the medical business process with error-free data. You no longer need to manually enter patient information, and the chances of errors are reduced to a minimum.

Healthcare providers have noticed that sometimes, patients lack an understanding of healthcare information and what actions they need to take. Patient education is crucial for increasing a patient’s knowledge, attitude, or skills towards maintaining or improving health. It enhances quality-of-care services and a reduction in emergency care and overall health expenses. Patient education can be achieved through patient engagement that motivates them to receive care services. If patients are engaged in your healthcare treatment, you will automatically have an increased inflow of patients.

Thus, your health services can become popular in 2021 merely by having patient education systems in place.  

Elderly patients or those with complex conditions require home care or hospice services. The primary goal of all healthcare professionals is to deliver value-based care that is of high quality. If the care provided is not up-to-the-mark, then patients’ condition may worsen with time, instead of getting better. This is where population analytics comes into picture. It allows you to identify patient populations, monitor the care provided, and implement strategic plans to deliver the best quality care via CDSS. Population analytics is available as a web and/or mobile-based application, making its use convenient and accessible. Population health analytics solutions allow data extraction from multiple sources quickly and efficiently. 

Sometimes, healthcare providers and clinicians recommend patients to follow a specific diet for improving their health. This is applicable in cases like diabetes, cardiovascular illness, or post-surgery. But, if they do not follow the recommended meal plans and the doctors are completely clueless about it, the health of such patients will only get worse. Nutritional trackers are technologically advanced tools that can help healthcare professionals to decipher from visuals and graphs about patients’ diet and make the necessary changes. If a patient is not following the diet or physical fitness routine, clinicians will be notified and can take action accordingly. In this way, patients’ diet intake is constantly monitored just with a click of a button.

Similar to meal plans, patients may require physical fitness regimes to improve their condition. If you are dealing with arthritis or heart disease cases, for example, you may want to keep tabs on the patient’s fitness level. Fitness trackers give you an idea of the percentage of fitness routines that each client has completed. These tracking devices include fitness bands and monitors. Fitness trackers help clinicians monitor the vitals and heart rate of patients.  They also enable healthcare providers to keep a tab on their patients and monitor their progress. This is particularly useful in patients with cardiovascular illness or those who just had major surgery. 

Some major concerns of hospital networks is to streamline billing and payments, have an organized workflow, and patient management processes. Practice management helps healthcare organizations to function smoothly with minimum errors in billing and documentation. Appointment scheduling is also simplified which reduces patient waiting times and no-shows. Practice Management implies a system or software that automates daily manual and cumbersome financial and administrative tasks. It allows healthcare providers to invest more time in quality care than operational work. Healthcare practice management can help you track, manage, and optimize administrative and financial processes. A practice management system consists of detailed and comprehensive reports explaining the patients’ performance, services rendered, and other parameters.  

The pharmacy space is complex and competitive in the United States, with the estimated market size of pharmacies being $318 billion in 2020. The pharmaceutical sector is constantly expanding to meet the growing needs of people. With the ongoing pandemic situation, accessing healthcare and medications has been a challenge. This difficulty is estimated to continue in 2021 as well. Online pharmacy is useful because it can be accessed from anywhere, and medications can be delivered to your doorstep. This is also quite handy for elderly patients or patients with critical health needs. Online pharmacies simplify processes like medication dispensing and inventory management. Prescriptions are also recorded online, so patients no longer need to worry about losing them.

Conclusion

The healthcare industry has been hit with challenges in terms of providing patient care, accessing data, communicating with patients, and prescribing medicines.  Healthcare management tools are necessary for simplifying these difficulties and tending to patients’ needs. Integrating these health management tools will enable you to successfully manage patient data and deliver quality care services. You or your staff do not need to deal with the stress of searching for files or overcoming billing errors. All operational tasks will be taken care of and at the same time, you will achieve a surplus of patient inflow.

References

https://www.hfma.org/topics/article/57023.html
https://www.advancedmd.com/patient/education/
https://catalyst.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/CAT.18.0268
https://empxtrack.com/blog/performance-management-challenges-in-health-industry/#:~:text=A%20Performance%20Management%20process%20aims,and%20promote%20service%20quality%20improvement
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-are-palliative-care-and-hospice-care
https://www.origamirisk.com/resources/blog-post/3-reasons-integrate-healthcare-claims-management
https://news.careinnovations.com/blog/what-is-telehealth-what-is-remote-patient-monitoring-how-are-they-different
https://hr.berkeley.edu/hr-network/central-guide-managing-hr/managing-hr/managing-successfully/performance-management/concepts
https://www.quatrishealthco.com/practice-management-resources-what-is-practice-management-software/